Greater Hartford Home Sales Rise For 4th Consecutive Month

Home sales in Greater Hartford logged a fourth consecutive month of increases in May, a new report Wednesday shows, a further indication that the spring housing market will end on an upbeat note.

Sales of single-family houses rose 4.3 percent in May, to 872, from 836 for the same month a year earlier, according to the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors, which tracks sales in a 57-town area stretching from Enfield south to Middletown.

The uptick in sales was not enough to lift the median sale price, however. The median price — in which half the sales are above, half below — was relatively flat, down a little less than 1 percent, to $216,000, from $218,000 a year ago.

Real estate professionals — and home sellers — have pinned a lot of their hopes on this year's spring market.

Single-family house sales in Greater Hartford and statewide logged double-digit, year-over-year gains in both 2012 and 2013, but price gains did not follow. Sales were disappointingly flat in 2014, compared with the previous year, a slow spring market and tepid job growth largely to blame.

In a typical housing recovery, sales pick up first, followed by prices.

John M. Zubretsky, president of Weichert, Realtors — The Zubretsky Group in Wethersfield, said that the difference between the spring market this year and in 2014 was striking.

"It's literally like night and day," Zubretsky said. "Last spring was nonexistent. There was a lot of anxiety on people and stress. This spring, the stress is, 'I bid on a house and didn't get it.'"

Zubretsky said that the $250,000 to $400,000 segment of the market has heated up, with multiple bids not uncommon. The upper-end of the market still remains sluggish, he said.

Job growth in the Hartford labor market, economists say, has been outpacing other areas of the state and Connecticut as a whole. However, the mix of jobs has shifted to lower-paying, service-sector positions.

Zubretsky said that sellers are listing their properties with prices that reflect the current market and not the hot market of, say, 2005 before the most recent downturn.

The prospect of rising mortgage rates later this year is on the mind of some buyers but not overly so, Zubretsky said.

"They said the same thing last year, and it didn't happen," Zubretsky said.

The association said that more sales appear to be on the way, with residential properties under deposit rising nearly 8 percent, to 1,309, from 1,214 a year earlier. Pending sales are a well-watched indicator of sales that will close in the next 45 to 60 days. Not all pending sales will necessarily close, however, coming up against troubles with financing or property inspections.

Jeff Arakelian, the association's chief executive, said that agents have been busy so far this spring, with prices remaining affordable.

"The affordability rating makes this market a great time to buy, with plenty of inventory and low interest rates," Arakelian said.

Inventory rose 3.6 percent, to 7,907 in May, from 7,632 a year earlier. Based on sales in May, the Hartford area has a nine-month supply of single-family houses, firmly in a buyer's market. The market is said to favor neither buyer nor seller with a six-month supply, and sellers have the upper hand below that level.

For the first five months of the year, sales of single-family houses in Greater Harford are up 1.5 percent, compared with the same period in 2014. The median sale price is down 2.7 percent for the same period, according to the association.